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Differences in views of schizophrenia during medical education: a comparative study of 1st versus 5th–6th year Italian medical students

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Abstract

Purpose

This study explored medical students’ causal explanations and views of schizophrenia, and whether they changed during medical education.

Method

The survey was carried out on medical students of the Second University of Naples, Italy, who attended their first-year and their fifth- or sixth-year of lessons. The 381 who accepted were asked to read a case-vignette describing a person who met the ICD-10 criteria for schizophrenia and then fill in the Opinions on mental illness Questionnaire.

Results

The most frequently cited causes were psychological traumas (60 %) and stress (56 %), followed by misuse of street drugs (47 %), and heredity (42 %). 28 % of students stated that persons with the disorder could be well again, and 28 % that they were unpredictable. Labeling the case as “schizophrenia” and naming heredity among the causes were associated with pessimism about recovery and higher perception of social distance. First-year students more frequently reported psychological traumas among the causes (76 vs. 45 %), and less frequently heredity (35 vs. 81 %) and stress (42 vs. 69 %), and they perceived less social distance from the “schizophrenics” than fifth/sixth-year students. In particular, 18 % percent of first-year versus 38 % of fifth/sixth-year students believed that these persons were kept at a distance by the other, and 45 versus 57 % felt frightened by persons with the condition.

Conclusions

These results indicate a need to include education on stigma and recovery in schizophrenia in the training of medical students.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank: (a) the Professors of the Faculty of Medicine of the Second University of Naples who facilitated the conduction of the study: A. Capuano, D. Cozzolino, A. Crisci, A. Filippelli, G. Delrio, A. Perna, S. Perrotta, F. Rossi, D. Ronca, M. Russo, N. Sannolo, A. Scotto di Tella; (b) Prof. I. Levav, Research Unit, Mental Health Services of the Israeli Ministry of Health for his valuable comments on the final draft of this paper; (c) D. Celona, L. Guariniello, and S. Rega for their contribution in the collection of the data; (d) the 381 participating students for their active involvement in the survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Viale Ellittico 31, 81100, Caserta, Italy

    Lorenza Magliano

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    John Read

  3. Faculty of Medicine, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

    Alessandra Sagliocchi, Melania Patalano, Antonio D’Ambrosio & Nicoletta Oliviero

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  1. Lorenza Magliano
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  3. Alessandra Sagliocchi
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  6. Nicoletta Oliviero
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Correspondence to Lorenza Magliano.

“Appendix”

“Appendix”

Case-vignette

Some people sometimes seem unable to distinguish between things that really happen and are experienced by other people, and things that happen only in their mind. Sometimes, these people believe or say things that seem bizarre or absurd to other people, or hear voices, smell things, or see images that other people do not. Sometimes, these people may have difficulty expressing their feelings or behaving appropriately (for instance, they may cry in response to a positive event, or may appear happy following an unpleasant one), or they may remain shut up in their house for a long time, or talk very little or not at all. They behave as if they lived in a world of their own, apparently without interest in anything or anybody. Sometimes they may have muddled thoughts, may invent odd or incomprehensible words, may lose the thread of the speech, or they may jump from one issue to another with no apparent reason.

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Magliano, L., Read, J., Sagliocchi, A. et al. Differences in views of schizophrenia during medical education: a comparative study of 1st versus 5th–6th year Italian medical students. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 48, 1647–1655 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0610-x

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